By Kelsie Cowart Columbia Gorge News WHITE SALMON — This summer, White Salmon local Gabriel Roth is spending seven to eight weeks immersing himself in Turkish language and culture in Ankara, Turkey, as part of the U.S. Department of State (DOS) Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program.
According to a press release, Roth, a graduate of Columbia High School (CHS), was one of approximately 500 American students selected from more than 5,000 applicants to study one of more than a dozen critical languages, overseas or virtually, for the summer of 2024. The program is part of a U.S.
government effort to increase the number of Americans studying critical languages across the globe, allowing its scholars to gain language and cultural skills enabling them to “contribute to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security,” said the press release.
Roth is a recent graduate of Western Washington University (WWU), earning a bachelor’s degree in history and French. While an exciting opportunity, Roth is no stranger to traveling, with this trip to Turkey being his second. According to Roth’s father, Dave, Roth traveled to Izmir, Turkey, in 2019 as a high school student thanks to the local White Salmon Rotary club.
Roth also spent a year abroad in Lyon, France, while attending WWU. In an email to Columbia Gorge News, Roth shared that he learned about the CLS program while working at the WWU Education Abroad Office, where he was encouraged to apply. According to his travel bl.
